Vettel takes pole position on super soft tyres

Red Bull racing ace Sebestian Vettel scored his fourth pole position of the season after using Bridgestone’s super soft tyres around the streets of Valencia for the European Grand Prix.

And there was more good news for Red Bull, as Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber joins him on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Even McLaren were delighted that despite tough competition this weekend, Lewis Hamilton set the third fastest time and will be joined on the second row by local Ferrari favourite Fernando Alonso.

Hirohide Hamashima, director of motorsport tyre development for Bridgestone, said: “Today the track condition continued to improve and we saw a new record set for pole position.

“The morning session did not point to a clear pace advantage between the two tyres, with the super soft offering more grip but less rear stability than the medium.

“The cooler temperatures this morning and the rapid track improvement made it difficult to analyse the data so qualifying was interesting for different approaches in use of the super soft or medium compounds.”

He added: “Tomorrow has potential to be quite interesting as the super soft appears to give quite good durability here, which offers the possibility for longer stints from this tyre than we have seen in many races, and certainly greater durability than we saw in Montreal.

“As overtaking has been difficult here in the past, track position and the timing of the pit stops will be crucial.”